Shanghai (AFP)
Born in a modest apartment in Hangzhou in 1999, Alibaba nurtured the Chinese insatiable appetite for online commerce by becoming one of the most successful companies in the world, gradually catching up with its model and rival, the American giant Amazon .
On Friday, the company, already listed on Wall Street, launched the process of its introduction to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where he hopes to raise nearly 12 billion euros to finance its international development.
- How it all began? -
Jack Ma, a former English teacher who boasts of never having written a computer code line, set up various companies with relative success before friends made him discover the internet during a trip to the United States in the 1990s.
As Amazon begins to make a name for itself in online commerce, Jack Ma in 1999 convinces a group of Chinese and foreign friends to put $ 60,000 into the pot to set up a "B to B" e-commerce business.
The start-up baptizes it "Alibaba" because the name is easy to pronounce in all languages, including Chinese, but also in reference to the famous formula of the tale, "sesame, open," the platform boasting " to open the door of fortune to SMEs ".
- Why such a success ? -
Alibaba was founded at a time when Chinese incomes are skyrocketing after decades of rapid growth, in a context also marked by accelerated digitization of the country. Alibaba is the meeting of consumers increasingly addicted to the ease of online shopping and the countless manufacturers of cheap products in the country.
Today, China has the largest connected population in the world: more than 850 million smartphone users. This hyperconnectivity fueled the company's rapid growth, which, 15 years after its founding, made a triumphant entry into the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 - raising $ 25 billion, the largest IPO in the industry. 'history.
- What is Alibaba doing? -
Online commerce remains the company's golden egg hen, via its two flagship sites: Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer platform, and Tall, where the sellers are companies. In both cases, purchases are settled mainly through its digital payment subsidiary Alipay, which has become a pioneer in this sector.
With these sites, the Chinese can buy a wide range of products ranging from clothing to electronics, food, luxury goods and even Boeing 747!
But the success of Alibaba has also allowed it to invest in new business sectors: it owns the main Chinese streaming site, Youku, and its subsidiary Alibaba Pictures took in 2016 a stake in the company Amblin Partners of Steven Spielberg, among other acquisitions in the film and entertainment industry. It has also put the ball in cloud computing, and recently acquired the Chinese leader in the distribution of food Ele.me.
- A giant, but still? -
Alibaba is today the most highly valued Chinese company, with a market capitalization of approximately $ 477 billion (€ 432 billion), and one of the world's ten largest capitalizations, yet still far from Amazon, whose market value is $ 870 billion (€ 788 billion).
Alibaba, headquartered in Hangzhou, is home to 104,000 people in China and around the world. Over the last few years, the company has set its sights on the international stage, setting up operations in Southeast Asia, where it operates the Lazada e-commerce platform.
© 2019 AFP